Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I welcome this opportunity to present this Bill. I am fortunate in that this is the second time I have been able to present legislation to the House on a Friday sitting.

The Bill is very deliberately named the Energy Security and Climate Change Bill, as I wanted to address both issues with one approach. The Bill will have three overall functions. Energy security is already a significant issue but as fossil fuels become ever more scarce, the need for us to ensure that we have a secure and affordable energy supply becomes even more critical for the sustainability of the State. The energy supply must minimise damage to the environment. We have already entered into legal obligations to move to a low-carbon model and reduce carbon emissions. These are legal obligations but I think most of us would accept that we also have moral obligations.

This week the Government decided to reschedule the debt on the promissory notes. Basically, our children and grandchildren will assume responsibility for most of it. It is a debt that they did not choose to incur and neither did we. If we continue to ignore our precarious position on energy security and climate change, we will run the risk of creating a crisis every bit as grave, and difficult to bear, for our children and grandchildren.

The Bill's third function concerns the huge economic challenges we face both now and in future. We are told that one of the key strategies to deal with these problems is to grow our economy. In order to do so, however, we must have an ample and sustainable energy supply. In fact, there is a great opportunity here. We must change the mindset and examine the opportunities presented by renewable energy. We cannot remain the last country at the end of a gas pipeline. We should see ourselves as becoming an energy exporter, so we need to be the first country on that pipeline.

Ireland has an import dependency on fossil fuels of around 85%, while the EU average is 50%. We import 93% of our natural gas, although the perception is that we are almost self-sufficient in natural gas. It is important to say what the position is. We have 84 days' of gasoline supplies. One only has to go down to the Clontarf Road, as Deputy Finian McGrath will tell us, and look across at the big fuel containers.

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